[Sca-cooks] A little note on Potatoes & tomatoes

[Decker, Terry D.]

In other words, no primary sources, although there are a couple of
interesting secondary sources.  I was hoping for something a little better
to clearly define the origin of the "facts."

IIRC, the sweet potato is originally commented upon in the Diary of
Christopher Columbus.  The white potato was found in Peru in 1530 by Jiminez
de Quesada, while the first written reference appears in 1553 in Chronica
del Peru by Pedro de Leon.  And I'm fairly certain that Oviedo wrote of
sweet potatoes in his Historia general y natural de las Indias, Islas y
Tierra-Firme del Mar Oceano (1517).

While potatoes have been tied to hospital accounts in Seville for 1573, I
would like to know the contemporary source for the cultivation recorded in
1539.

The 1586 date for potatoes in Ireland is interesting, because it is the year
Francis Drake raided Cartagena and may have brought potatoes into England as
part of the reprovisioning of his ships after the capture of the city.  It
is also the year Drake rescued the survivors of the Virginia colony and
returned them to England, an event which may have tied the potatoes to
Virginia in the mind of John Gerard.

Apocryphally, Walter Raleigh, one of the major promoters of the Virginia
colony, is said to have introduced potatoes to his estates in Ireland.
There is some speculation that if he did so, they were sweet potatoes rather
than white potatoes.

Neither of these potato stories has been proven to scholarly satisfaction,
nor has the idea that the Spanish Armada brought potatoes to Ireland after
it's defeat on August 7, 1588.

As I said, I was hoping for a little better documentation, but the
bibliography may prove useful.  Thanks.

Bear

> Yes, I mentioned a few of them at the end of the post.  Most of the
> bibliography is a list of Spanish books.
>
> Kyle